The Ford Barn - Father, Son, Dog and "Old Henry" to Moab, Utah

Just a little overnighter driving 460 miles round trip to Moab, Utah, famous for its red slickrock, then through Potash to Shafer trail. Here's the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqe_DiViL-E

After driving along the Colorado River for 9 miles the pavement ended and we were on dirt road headed to Potash, Canyonlands National Park, and up the Shafer Trail to Dead Horse Point*.

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Eventually we were well above the Colorado River looking down on it while driving along the cliff above it.

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Later we drove right under Dead Horse Point*. (If you look closely at the right edge of the top of the cliff you can see the pavilion at the overlook.) Video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOnKz-qRyuY

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Since we did not ultimately make it up to Dead Horse Point* I include these pictures taken on our honeymoon 40 years ago looking down from it onto this road that we were driving. For a most dramatic aerial view of this whole area search for Dead Horse Point State Park, Utah 313, Moab, UT on Google Earth. You'll see the whole route from Moab to the Shafer Trail including the Potash Ponds and Dead Horse Point peninsula and overlook.

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Further along that road where it got fairly precarious carved between the cliff on the right going up and the one on the left dropping down to the river:

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At one point we went down a fairly rough section of road. I thought it would be nice to film going down it from outside the car so got out and told Morgan, who was driving, to back up that steep section and come down again while I filmed. Well, he could not see the only huge boulder around that was right behind him and I couldn't see it from where I was standing. So he backed right into it and hit it with the exhaust deflector, bent it and smashed it a little. (I had thought several times before we started to pull that thing off so it wouldn't get damaged but never did. Now I wish I had although it's not as bad as it looks. Should straighten out and look just fine again.)

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Here's the video we sacrificed the exhaust deflector to get: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXR42yAxlsw

The only other vehicle we saw along the way was a Suzuki Trooper with three people in it that was going along about the same as us, sometimes ahead and sometimes behind. We stopped to talk once. They were pretty shocked to see such a classic car driving "off road" but they were old enough to know that before it was a "classic" it was a strong sturdy car that was used for everything including dirt roads. The driver said that we were not going to be able to make it up Shafer Trail, that it was closed with a gate. We still drove until we confirmed that, indeed, that was the case. Shafer Trail winds up the cliff beyond.

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This is a photo taken from Dead Horse Point* on a previous trip of the point we made it to where the road joins from the left about ¾ the way along where the outhouse is on the road. Beyond that point is the White Rim Trail, a 90 mile drive along that same plateau halfway between the Colorado River and the Island In The Sky plateau that Dead Horse Point is on.

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Here's Shafer Trail winding up the side of the cliff taken from that previous trip. It would have been pretty precarious covered with ice and snow.

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On the way back toward the Potash Ponds where the slurry of water and potash from the mines is pumped to for the water to evaporate leaving the potash to be scooped into trains and hauled away.

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In the summer they put some kind of chemical in the ponds to make them evaporate faster which turns the water a bright blue as shown in this picture taken from Dead Horse Point earlier one summer. Beautiful.

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At one point along those ponds there was a huge puddle that stretched across the road and 40-50 feet long that could not be avoided so we had to drive through it. The risky thing about a huge puddle like that is that the depth and bottom surface is unknown. It could be a few inches of water on a solid surface or a foot or more of water covering a mud abyss. So, which do you think we would get? Watch the video to see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWEHZQpuiwI

At the point trying to get through that mud hole when forward motion ceased it was amazing all of the things that flashed through my mind in nano-seconds about being stuck there and having to call a tow truck from Moab to come pull us out. (The only other vehicle mentioned went on into Canyonlands National Park where we ended at the Shafer Trail and was not available to help.) Fortunately, I'd done a good bit of 4-wheeling in an old Jeep Wagoneer for many years and had some idea how to get through and was lucky enough to make it. But, I know I had never seen the speedometer read 30 mph in 1st gear!

Turned out that the mud was deep enough to mark Old Henry well including washing onto the running boards:

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Ah, Moab Mud, the greatest mud on earth! (For another great video of old cars driving in the mud watch this: https://www.youtube.com/embed/nq2jY1trxqg?rel=0)

After that ordeal we finished the trip back to Moab, ate, and headed for home. It wasn't long before Morgan realized what an effort it had been to drive Old Henry off road and opted to climb in the back to sleep with Pepe for the rest of the trip home.

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Previous Road Trips:

Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument November 2013: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=123694

Across Nevada on US 50, "The Loneliest Road in the Country", October 2013: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=120098

Mount Evans (the highest paved road in North America) August 2013: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=115013

Canada in June 2013: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=109872

Monument Valley in March 2013: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=99523

Bryce Canyon in February 2013: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=97822

Milford, Utah in December 2012: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=93137

Nevada and Idaho in November 2012: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=89080

Rocky Mountain National Park in September 2012: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=83966

Yellowstone National Park in May 2012: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=72864

Death Valley in February 2012: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=62705

Pike's Peak in July 2011: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19141

Route 66 in April 2010: https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=57511

*Dead Horse Point is a peninsula of rock atop sheer sandstone cliffs. The peninsula is connected to the mesa by a narrow strip of land called the neck. There are many stories about how this high promontory of land received its name.
According to one legend, around the turn of the century the point was used as a corral for wild mustangs roaming the mesa top. Cowboys rounded up these horses, herded them across the narrow neck of land and onto the point. The neck, which is only 30-yards-wide, was then fenced off with branches and brush. This created a natural corral surrounded by precipitous cliffs straight down on all sides, affording no escape. Cowboys then chose the horses they wanted and let the culls or broomtails go free. One time, for some unknown reason, horses were left corralled on the waterless point where they died of thirst within view of the Colorado River, 2,000 feet below.

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For a most dramatic aerial view of this whole area search for Dead Horse Point State Park, Utah 313, Moab, UT on Google Earth. You'll see the whole route from Moab to the Shafer Trail including the Potash Ponds and Dead Horse Point peninsula and overlook.